28.2

Seonho was packing some items in his room when Seonkyung entered.

“What brings you to my room?”

It was the first time Seonkyung had ever come to Seonho’s room in person.

“Have you proposed?”

“No.”

“You’re not going to?”

There was an accusation in Seonkyung’s tone, as if questioning how he could entertain such an absurd thought.

“Did you come to my room just to ask that?”

“Even if you’ve set a wedding date, you still have to propose, though I don’t think Chaeyoon will mind.”

“I’m preparing well, don’t worry.”

“Don’t skimp on money.”

“You worry too much.”

“But how are you going to do it?”

Curiosity filled Seonkyung’s voice.

“Would you stop prying? It feels like I’m getting coached by you again.”

Seonho said, sounding annoyed.

Seonkyung was excessively interested in Chaeyoon and her meddling was bothersome.

“A woman knows a woman’s heart. It’s not bad getting coached by me. You have a good sense, don’t you?”

“No, I’ll ask Chaeyoon later. Stop nagging. It’s already a mess because you brought a private jet to pick us up.”

“Were you planning to propose on the plane? Aye, you should have told me earlier. How about a cruise ship? We could set up a twelve-course event.”

“Are you just trying to fulfill your own vicarious desires for a proposal you want to receive?”

“Oh, that’s not a bad idea either. Vicarious satisfaction. What’s not to like?”

Seonkyung looked like she was starting to think seriously.

“Forget it. I’ll do it my way. You and Chaeyoon’s tastes are different, Mom, you know.”

Seonho finally raised his voice.

“There’s no need to shout. Okay, handle the proposal yourself. I’ll prepare something on my own.”

“What preparation?”

Seonho’s eyes widened.

“A proposal from the mother-in-law for her daughter-in-law?”

“Is there such a thing?”

“I can make it happen. I really like the cruise idea. A 12-course event.”

As Seonkyung muttered to herself, Seonho simply gave up.

“Do as you please. If you’re done, get out. You’re giving me a headache.”

“I’m not done yet. This is the real reason I came.”

“What is it now?”

Seonho was even scared of what bizarre thing Seonkyung might say next.

“Take the chartered plane tomorrow.”

“A chartered plane?”

“Grandpa is worried that Chaeyoon might find it hard. He says to take the chartered plane for comfort.”

“Grandpa?”

Seonho looked incredulous.

“He says Chaeyoon is very affectionate, and he thinks she’s very cute. He wants to visit her in London before the wedding.”

“Grandpa too? Why is he doing this? They only spent half a day together yesterday.”

Seonho was furious.

After the first meeting, Grandfather had indeed separately invited Seonho and Chaeyoon for a meal and played chess with them.

“Chaeyoon is really gentle. It’s strangely thrilling to be with her. She has a peculiar charm that makes it fun.”

Seonkyung tilted her head.

“Why can’t you just leave us alone? If Chaeyoon gets tired of how overbearing our family is, she might run away. Will you take responsibility then?”

“Humph! Let her run. Even if she does, she’ll be somewhere in the world. It’s fine. We’ll just have to catch her and bring her back.”

Seonkyung spoke nonchalantly and elegantly turned to leave the room.

Seonho, troubled by a newly introduced rival, flopped on the bed.

“I should take Chaeyoon with me and leave the planet.”

Why is it so hard to have Chaeyoon to myself, even after getting married?

***

“Ah, this is nice.”

Chaeyoon walked through the autumnal Kew Gardens with a happy expression. The trees, instead of flowers, were dressed up with colorful autumn leaves and fruits.

“If spring gardens are openly bright, autumn gardens are subtly splendid.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a leisurely time, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Even though going to Korea didn’t seem like a big deal, the long journey was tiring. At least the chartered plane made it comfortable. I can’t believe I’m getting used to chartered planes.”

Chaeyoon naturally linked arms with Seonho.

“I’m not used to chartered planes either. You have to be at least my grandparent or my mother’s level to be used to them.”

“I see. Wow, I really got lucky. Oh? Look, a hydrangea tree.”

Chaeyoon stopped walking and ran her palm over a small branch.

“It was so pretty when the hydrangeas bloomed in July.”

“I know, right? I had no idea that hydrangeas bloomed on trees until I met you.”

Thanks to Chaeyoon, Seonho was also gradually learning a lot about flowers and trees.

“Holland Park is nice, but I like Kew Gardens because it’s natural and not artificial. The color scheme is also natural.”

“I like the lack of tourists.”

Chaeyoon loved strolling slowly and taking walks, so they often visited the park whenever they had a chance. 

Although walking was a culture distant from Seonho, he had come to enjoy these simple strolls with Chaeyoon.

“Yeah, it’s a big place, but tourists don’t know much about it.”

“When I think of hydrangeas, I think of Camellia Hill. I heard that in summer, instead of camellias, it’s full of hydrangeas.”

Chaeyoon picked up a fallen twig from the ground and drew a hydrangea on the dirt.

“Would it look pretty if I made a hydrangea out of pearl?”

“How about making this first?”

“Huh?”

As Chaeyoon looked up, Seonho pulled out two small pouches.

“What’s that?”

“The ring you need to make.”

When he opened the pouch, it revealed a rough, quite large unpolished diamond.

“Oh? When did you buy this?”

As expected, Chaeyoon’s face lit up greedily at the sight of the raw gemstone. She loved gemstones, as befitting a jewelry designer.

“I had a hard time finding something big, from a non-conflict zone.”

Seonho recited basic knowledge that any jewelry designer’s lover should know. It was the result of Chaeyoon’s insistence on ethical and environmentally sustainable sourcing of metals and gemstones.

“It must have been hard to find one of this size.”

“Of course, Junsu did.”

“He’s not your secretary anymore, right?”

When Seonho came to study in London, Junsu had been assigned back to the headquarters.

“Once a secretary, always a secretary. I thought about buying a finished stone, but I got the raw gem so you could cut it into whatever shape you want.”

“As expected. You definitely have the qualifications to be my husband. I really like this thoughtful gesture. Always doing exactly what I like.”

Chaeyoon looked at Seonho lovingly.

By choosing Seonho, she ended up becoming a daughter-in-law of a wealthy family, but she held onto one principle:

Finding a man who respects and cares for her.

Whether it was a trait she didn’t know Seonho had until they became lovers or something he adjusted for her, she wasn’t sure.

“It’ll be tight to finish it by the wedding, won’t it? Sorry, but I’ll have to postpone other jobs. My wedding comes first. The clients will understand, right?”

As Chaeyoon rotated the gemstone in the sunlight, her eyes sparkled brighter than any jewel, almost blinding Seonho.

These moments made his heart race. Seeing her every day, he never got tired of her; rather, he fell deeper in love—a truly mystical experience he had never encountered before.

“Since we’ve set the wedding date, instead of ‘Will you marry me?’ I’ll say something else. Thank you for marrying me.”

“And thank you for chasing me to the end to get me to marry you.”

“And thank you for letting yourself be caught by me.”

The love in Seonho’s eyes overflowed, drenching Chaeyoon’s heart with a sense of fulfillment. It was an indescribably sacred feeling.

“Right, speaking of which, I also need to keep a promise.”

“Hmm? What promise?”

“Let’s go home and then head downtown.”

Chaeyoon grabbed Seonho’s hand and hurried him along.

***

Prick.

As the needle pierced her left earlobe, Chaeyoon winced and shut her eyes tight. When it was over, she held up a mirror and looked at herself. A green vidilite piercing glittered in her left earlobe.

Chaeyoon walked to the café where Seonho was waiting.

Would Seonho like it?

She had deliberately told him to wait in the café to surprise him, but she wondered if he would like it.

“Hey, you’re here. What’s this surprise gift you’re talking about?”

Seonho searched her hands for the gift.

“You don’t have it?”

“It’s here.”

Chaeyoon tucked a stray strand of hair behind her left ear to show her piercing.

“Uh, … uh.”

Seonho couldn’t continue his words and kept stammering “uh, uh,” covering his face with one hand.

“You really…”

“Why? Are you disappointed?”

“You never let yourself lose, do you?”

Seonho’s voice was deeply subdued.

After moving his hand, Seonho’s face turned red. Chaeyoon had kept the promise to get a matching piercing on the day Seonho proposed.

“Are you moved by this?”

“Of course. Ah, really…”

Seonho struggled to find the words to express his joy, still stammering. Chaeyoon took his hand and interlocked their fingers.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being so moved and happy over something so small compared to what you’ve given me.”

“How is this not a big deal? You gave yourself to me.”

“You were the first to give me your all.”

Chaeyoon said, looking at the red piercing hanging by his ear.

“Let’s live happily together.”

“Let’s do that.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Their intertwined hands tightened as they smiled endlessly at each other.

***

Truly, Seonho’s scale of things…

Standing in the center of the grand resort hall, Chaeyoon tried not to shake her head in disbelief.

In front of her, currently popular male and female musical actors were singing and dancing. This was not just a performance, but a full-blown production.

The carefully selected thousand guests were more like an audience, and the aisle was the stage. The popular actors had sweet voices and powerful vocal ranges, suitable for a romantic wedding song.

As the wedding song reached its climax, the musical actors approached with baskets, sprinkling live flower petals over the couple.

“The petals are falling like rain.”

Chaeyoon said to Seonho, smiling broadly as she kept her bridal posture while looking straight ahead.

She didn’t want the solemn atmosphere of Joo-eun’s wedding, but she also didn’t expect it to be this extravagant.

“I’m telling you in advance, this is not my idea.”

“Then, your mother?”

“Grandfather. He said having musical actors sing the wedding song is the latest trend.”

At that, Chaeyoon glanced at her pleased-looking grandfather-in-law.

“I see. Imagine how fortunate we are that it’s not the national choir.”

“Mother barely managed to talk him out of that, saying it was too tacky.”

“Oh dear.”

As the officiant declared their union, a popular handsome announcer, acting as the master of ceremonies, spoke in a clear voice.

“Please congratulate the bride and groom with applause as they walk down the aisle.”

With that, they walked down the long aisle together, the applause from the thousand guests thundering like a storm. The aisle was long, fitting for the large number of guests.

“I’m starting to regret this wedding a bit.”

Seonho had promised Chaeyoon that he would let her live the life she wanted, and his family had agreed.

But the scale of their interference, beyond Chaeyoon’s imagination, was sometimes bewildering.

“It’s too late for regrets now. If you run away, my mother said she would chase you to the ends of the earth.”

Seonho wrapped his arm around Chaeyoon’s outstretched hand as if to prevent her from running away.

As they reached the end of Virgin Road, their friends, classmates, and juniors, who weren’t so close to them, chanted, “Kiss, kiss!”

Seonho and Chaeyoon then looked at each other.

“I love you.”

Seonho whispered.

“You say that at the most random times.”

“I have no other excuse for this. I’ll do better from now on.”

Seonho slowly bent his head and tenderly kissed Chaeyoon. Whistles and cheers swept past their ears.

“What can I do? It’s my fault for falling for your sexiness.”

As their lips parted, Chaeyoon wiped the lipstick from Seonho’s lips with her thumb, smiling. The diamond wedding ring on her finger sparkled under the lights.

It was the ring she had imagined she would want if she were to get married, and now it was actually on her finger and Seonho’s finger.

She thought about how excited the bride and groom would be to choose their wedding rings. And yet, she had lovingly made rings for both of them.

Their love, and the life they would build together, would have to be crafted and nurtured more diligently than these rings. Seonho was a beautiful gemstone with enough potential for such a life together.

Chaeyoon kissed Seonho’s cheek and whispered.

“So, I’ll take responsibility.”

At that, Seonho burst out laughing, uncaring of the jeers from the people overjoyed for the groom.